Tennis

Wayward ball boy enters court at French Open

With the ball dropping from the sky in the middle of a point, a
ball boy at the French Open suddenly appeared out of nowhere and
ran onto the court.

He didn’t interfere with Viktor Troicki, the Serbian tennis
player who was going for a smash during the fifth set, but his
disruption still caused the point to be replayed – much to the
dismay of Troicki.

”I never saw (this before),” said Troicki, who ended up losing
to Andy Murray 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 on Tuesday in the fourth
round. ”I haven’t seen it on TV, or ever. I mean, since I watched
tennis and I played tennis, I have never seen such a situation. Kid
just jumped in and messed up my point.”

The young man, waiting next to the chair umpire during the
rally, thought the point was over after Murray struggled to
retrieve the ball and was only able to send back a defensive lob.
He ran onto the court to catch the ball and almost bumped into
Troicki.

”He came into the court right in the middle of the point, and
he didn’t see that the ball was coming back in the court,” Troicki
said. ”The rule is if he’s like in the middle of the court, we
should replay the point. But still, I mean, Andy had no chance to
be back in the point, so …”

The intrusion happened at the start of the sixth game of the
final set. And although Troicki won the point with his smash, it
had to be replayed.

Murray then won the replayed point, but Troicki still managed to
break for a 4-2 lead.

”He didn’t do anything wrong,” Troicki said of Murray. ”He
just continued playing the point. He was lucky that the kid came
in, but I would have done the same. It was just bad luck for
me.”

Troicki, however, showed his displeasure. After learning the
point would be replayed, he crouched incredulously and stared at
the offending ball boy. The crowd then started to cheer Troicki
while whistling the chair umpire, Pascal Maria.

But later in the same game, after losing a point to trail 40-30,
Troicki waved his arm to gesture to the ball boy that he should
have run onto the court during that point. In disgust, and with the
ball rolling toward him, Troicki then kicked the ball away from the
ball boy as he moved to retrieve it.